“The allegations are that the man was involved in proliferating weapons of mass destruction. He was allegedly an economic agent for the North Korean regime and was also trying to source raw material for the regime such as coal.”

Mr Keenan says Australia has not seen a “level of this offending before”.

“We don’t see a crime of this seriousness in Australia very often. He’s working against the whole global community. North Korea is an erratic criminal state.

“Every sane person in the world has a great reason to ensure their [nuclear] programs are not successful.”